Rare Events Or Rarely Reported?

Are Vaccine-Related Deaths Being Hidden in Plain Sight?

Since 2020, the United States has seen over 1.5 million excess deaths—lives lost beyond what we’d expect based on pre-pandemic trends. The official narrative pins most of these on COVID-19, its long-term effects (“long COVID”), and healthcare disruptions like missed cancer screenings. But what if the numbers are skewed? What if deaths tied to COVID vaccines—particularly serious ones like myocarditis or even cancer—are being underreported or mislabeled as “long COVID” because of sloppy record-keeping or lack of advocacy? Let’s dig into the cracks in the system and ask: could millions of vaccine-related deaths be slipping through, especially for those without a voice?

The Excess Death Puzzle

Independent studies, like those from Boston University and JAMA, estimate 1.5–1.7 million excess US deaths from 2020 to 2024—about 0.5% of the 340 million population. Most (70–80%) are linked to COVID infections, either directly or through undercounted cases, with another 15–20% tied to missed treatments (e.g., an 80% drop in cancer screenings in 2020). Heart disease and metabolic issues spiked, especially in younger adults, with cardiovascular deaths up 10–15% post-COVID waves. But here’s the kicker: these patterns started before vaccines rolled out, per a PNAS study of 3,127 US counties. So why the rush to blame long COVID for everything?

VAERS: A Leaky Net

The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is our main tool for flagging vaccine issues, but it’s a passive system—anyone can report, but no one’s required to. Studies (e.g., PLOS One, 2022) estimate it misses 90–99% of mild events like fevers, and even for serious cases like deaths, it captures only 50–75%. Why? Overworked doctors, unaware families, or coroners who don’t think “vaccine” when an elderly person dies of a heart attack. For someone who dies alone—no family, no vaccine passport with date or lot number—the odds of making it into VAERS drop to 10–20%, per provider surveys. If that person got a shot weeks or months earlier, their death might be chalked up to “heart disease” (683K deaths/year) or “long COVID” without a second thought.

The Vaccine Passport Problem

Imagine someone dies suddenly—say, a young person with no history of heart issues, two weeks after a COVID vaccine. If they’re alone, with no family to push for answers and no vaccine passport (or digital record) to show the shot’s timing, how likely is it that a busy ER doc or coroner flags it for VAERS? Not very. Only 5% of US deaths get autopsied, and coroners rarely link vaccines without clear evidence, per a 2023 Forensic Science International review. X users like @CartlandDavid claim nursing home deaths were labeled “natural” despite recent vaccinations, with no one to challenge the call. Without a passport tying the death to a specific dose, it’s easy to default to “long COVID” or comorbidities, especially for delayed events.

Long COVID: Convenient Catch-All?

Long COVID is real—studies (e.g., The Lancet, 2025) show it raises dementia risk by 41% and heart issues by 10–15% in survivors. But is it being overused to explain excess deaths? A PNAS study found non-COVID deaths (e.g., heart failure) spiked with COVID waves, not vaccine rollouts, suggesting undercounted infections. Yet X posts (e.g., @Suzaku_is_tired) ask: “Why always virus?” Some claim millions of vaccine deaths are mislabeled as long COVID, citing small autopsy studies (e.g., 28 cases, 100% vaccine-linked myocarditis). These are outliers—large cohorts (e.g., 58M in South Korea) show no vaccine-driven death or cancer spikes. Still, the question lingers: are we too quick to blame the virus when records are spotty?

Myocarditis and Cancer: Rare or Hidden?

Vaccine-related myocarditis is documented—5–27 cases per million doses, mostly mild, with <0.5% fatal (e.g., 3 deaths in 37.6M doses, per EClinicalMedicine, 2024). Compare that to COVID infection: 1,000–1,400 myocarditis cases per 100K, 40–50x riskier. These peak 2–7 days post-shot, so delayed cases are harder to link without clear records. Cancer? No evidence supports “turbo cancer” claims—excess cancer deaths (9–10%) tie to delayed screenings, per JAMA Oncology. X users like @ABridgen push for millions of hidden vaccine deaths, but cohort studies (e.g., 37.6M vaccinated, no excess beyond 42 days) don’t back this. Still, if someone dies alone, no passport, no family—could their case slip through?

What If It’s Worse Than We Think?

Let’s entertain the worst-case: what if 10% of the 270M vaccinated Americans (27M people) died from vaccine-induced myocarditis or cancer, mislabeled as long COVID due to missing records? That’s 4,000% above the 1.5M excess deaths we’ve seen, dwarfing total US deaths (~3.3M/year). It’d crash hospitals, spike autopsies, and show in unvaccinated comparisons (e.g., Denmark’s 3% excess vs. US 15%). No such signal exists—excess tracks infections, not shots. Even if VAERS misses 50% of vaccine deaths (~8,000 reported, ~16,000 max), that’s 0.006% of vaccinated—nowhere near millions. But for isolated folks, no passport, no advocates—the system’s gaps could bury their story.

Questions to Ponder

• If vaccine records aren’t readily available, how many deaths get mislabeled as “long COVID” or “natural causes”?
• Is long COVID a convenient excuse when we lack the data to dig deeper?
• Why do excess deaths track COVID waves, not vaccine rollouts, in global studies?
• How many isolated deaths—without family or records—are we missing entirely?
• If millions of vaccine deaths are hidden, why don’t we see a massive mortality spike in high-vax countries?

The numbers could be skewed—missing records and passive systems like VAERS leave room for doubt. X voices (e.g., @NicHulscher, @EthicalSkeptic) claim millions of deaths are buried, but large-scale data doesn’t support it. Still, every unreported case is a person, not a statistic. What do you think—how big is the gap, and what’s the truth we’re not seeing? Drop your thoughts below.